Offline NIS client
 

I think about setting up NIS on my network, of course I also have a notebook. I tried to learn about different solutions for an NIS client for my notebook - which of course is offline from time to time - and I'd like to be able to log on though. I learned about two solutions: Using a client cache (nscd) or setting up a NIS slave server on the laptop. Does anyone have practical experiences with any of those solutions? Does one or the other solution have a major disadvantage?

Armin

Even with a cache, it won't last. You could try the slave approach... but IMHO, it's easier to just create a local credential using the same uid. Notebooks tend to be very single user... so it's not like you have to create all of the ids. Then I usually don't run ypbind at start but give the user the ability to sudo rcypbind .... so that it can be brought up when needed.

I've fiddled a little bit with nscd and I think it can be set up to cache entries for as long as you like. I'd either use it or just create the necessary user/group IDs locally, being sure to synch up the local UID/GID numbers with those in NIS.

Having nscd cache indefinitely is a NO NO with regards to NIS. Do you really want to use the old password forever (just an example)? There's good reasons for not using nscd at all on a NIS client.